Oooh! Now this is a good one. Horace Tapscott is, in the opinion of this Norman Records™ dogsbody, one of the most underrated spiritual jazz artists of the 20th Century. The heady brews that he cooked up with the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra are some of the most innovative and potent Afrofuturist compositions you’ll hear for a long time. 1978 LP The Call has been out of print for decades, so it’s a real treat that Outernational Sounds have managed to secure the rights to this reissue. The crush of strings that kick off ‘Peyote Song No. III’ are the same ones you hear sampled on the opening track of Romare’s Meditations On Afrocentrism.

You know when someone's band is called an Arkestra that things are about to get very real. Flight 17 is the first recording of Horace Tapscott's the Pan-Afrikan People's Arkestra. The album is a delightful and life-affirming take on big band jazz. Experimental and effusive, with the sort of energy that might even bring round a 'jazz hater'.

Even by their usual high standards Soul Jazz Records have outdone themselves here. Horace Tapscott was an influential West Coast jazzer who simply does not get the credit that his outstanding catalogue warrants. Horace Tapscott with the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra Live At I.U.C.C., a recording Tapscott made with his Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra back in 1979, has been out of print for decades. It’s an absolutely superb example of large-ensemble spiritual jazz and is more than worthy of a reissue. Not to be missed.

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